A Whole Lot Goin' On

Beets are finally filling up my freezer this fall.  

We have a good supply of shredded zucchini, so the next ones went in the freezer sliced.  I know these sometimes thaw watery and softer, but I just drain the water and cook.  We use these mainly in our teriyaki dish over winter, but have added them to other casserole dishes and mixed vegetable sides.  I'll be honest, I'm surprised my zucchini is still producing.  It looks terrible right now.  I doubt I'll get much more, but would be blessed to get a few more.

I purchased some large head garlic (organic) at the Farmer's Market, which is much easier to slice and dehydrate than my homegrown this year.  It's much smaller (in fact there were farmer's selling the smaller size for $.25/each as well).

I did a bit of bad calculating, and wasted some dehydrator space, so I'll be making sure I slice up 37 large heads to completely fill my dehydrator next time. I also have to remember to wear gloves when I slice.  We have been out of homemade garlic powder.

The pear trees have pears this year!  Woohoo!  Now, if I can get some to ripen all at the same time so I can can some this year, that would be great.  I want to try a few new recipes too, and now Hubby wants to start collecting the necessary tools to make Pear wine.  Not sure where to start - buy the kit, or just collect what I need when I find it on sale?  I've been asking folks to save me their screw top wine bottles too.  Down the road I will be making other fruit wine, including elderberry, plum, peach, and raspberry.  I could make blueberry too, but would have to buy the blueberries.  Hm.  Another reason to plant the apricot tree, and one more plum tree. 

It's a busy week this week.  The girls started school today.  It's me and the dogs from now on.  I hope I can handle tomato season without a dog fence.  Please ignore my dirty window, ha ha!
 

Yesterday morning, this happened.....
 

I wanted it, and now it arrived - 47 1/2 pounds of pure, homegrown tomatoes. 

1 1/2# of grape tomatoes.

So, when the tomatoes talk, I do the walk.  My entire day that I planned in the kitchen changed in a moment.  This is the first year to can a full 45 pound batch of tomato sauce.  I don't remember it taking so long.

It's all cooked down, until tomatoes are soft, then .....

...into the sauce maker to remove the seeds and peelings.

Then it's back on the stove to reduce by half.  I had my two biggest pots going until I could put it all in one large pot. 

While that continued to reduce, I managed to get these mingling peppers in the freezer.  Saving them from King, the table surfing dog.

I was thankful the garlic was not ready to grind up by the time I retired.  I pretty much collapsed in bed.  Hubby worked overtime too.  

Zuri helped clean myself up by licking all the tomato splatters off my feet, however....
 

...she ate the thumb off my 20-some year-old, very expensive oven mitt.  She ate the other one early on.  I was canning at 9pm last night, and I guess too tired to put the mitts away.  Now I'm searching for a place to buy a good set that are good for up to 500°F.